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Friends visit 70 railway stations in 12 hours

John BrayWest Midlands
News imageAlex Manners Four young men at Coventry Arena Railway Station. Stood in front of the station sign on the platform is a man with yellow and purple glasses, a man with red coat, glasses and black hat, a man wearing glasses with a blue coat with blue and white striped top, and a man with a blue jacket on, ginger beard and turquoise beanie hat Alex Manners
The end of the line for Alex, Max, Ben and Luke after their 12-hour journey

A group of friends set themselves a challenge of visiting 70 West Midlands railway stations in 12 hours - and were left "absolutely buzzing" after achieving their goal.

Alex Manners and his friends Luke, Ben and Max set off on their marathon trip from Earlswood near Solihull shortly after 08:00 GMT last Saturday and finished at Coventry Arena at 20:00.

"We knew people had done something similar on the London Underground," said Manners, who, like his friends, is autistic and works with train companies to make travelling more accessible.

A TikTok post sharing the group's task has now been viewed about 100,000 times, and demonstrated, Manners said, "what an achievement this was" for them.

"It's Ben who is obsessed with trains, but I was absolutely buzzing for the whole day," he said, explaining how his friend had put together a schedule.

"It was one of the most exciting days I've ever had in the UK and now I feel like a train buff."

News imageAlex Manners Three young men at Earlswood Railway Station. Stood in front of the station sign on the platform is a man with yellow and purple glasses and red hat and scarf, a man with red coat, glasses and black hat and a man with a blue jacket on, ginger beard and turquoise beanie hat Alex Manners
The group photographed and filmed their journey and plan to make a film of their day to post on YouTube

Manners said: "I really love promoting awareness and understanding of autism and I do quite a bit of work with train companies to make train travel more accessible.

"I want to promote the challenges and positives of autism, show what an achievement this was and also to show what people with autism can do when they put their mind to it and how brilliantly autistic people can work together."

News imageAlex Manners A man in a orange, white, beige and black jacket, with pink backpack, takes a photo of a man with red coat, glasses and black hat and a man with a blue jacket on, ginger beard and turquoise beanie hat. They are stood next to a yellow tram at a railway station Alex Manners
News imageAlex Manners A man in a orange, white, beige and black jacket, with purple and yellow glasses, stood in front of a brick wall with a Wolverhampton sign.Alex Manners
One of the day's highlights was a journey on the shuttle service from Stourbridge Junction to Stourbridge Town
One of the furthest points north on the trip was a stop at Wolverhampton, a station served by Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry, Transport for Wales and West Midlands Trains services
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